


Walls Come Tumbling Down

by scifisentai



Category: Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger
Genre: Gen, Hospitalization, Hospitals, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-05-03
Packaged: 2018-10-27 14:33:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10810947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scifisentai/pseuds/scifisentai
Summary: Yukito ends up in hospital because he's a dumbass who doesn't communicate and the others have had enough of his shit, especially when he's scaring the crap out of them with it.





	Walls Come Tumbling Down

**Author's Note:**

> Set somewhere between the 20-25 episode mark.

He didn’t like hospitals. That was something Ryouga had long decided and nothing had changed since the last time he’d visited to change that opinion, particularly this hospital. Last time he’d been here had been less than a year ago - a few months before he met Tyranno and became Abare Red - and it had been the last time he’d seen his brother alive. Which had absolutely nothing to do with the reason he was here now, because Sanjou-san wasn’t going to die. He paced the corridor, sparing a glance every so often for the red light proclaiming surgery was taking place. It was just… Sanjou-san always seemed so invincible, so it was even worse to see him collapsed on the floor of the Dino House, looking through him with glazed eyes rather than looking actually _at_ him, his head cradled between Suke-san’s hands.

“Ryouga-san, sit down,” Ranru said tiredly. “You won’t change anything walking a hole in the floor.”

He looked over at her, sitting leaning forward in her chair, chin resting in her hands. She was paler than usual and staring at the wall; Asuka-san wasn’t much better either, only he was alternating between pacing and sitting as opposed to picking one and sticking with it. Ryouga studied the chairs for a moment then resumed pacing - better to keep moving than sit in one place with nothing to occupy his mind. Shouldn’t they have finished by now? And when were they going to be told anything? The waiting and not knowing was driving him crazy; this wasn’t like one of the kiss it and make it better problems that Mai-chan had, this was a lot more serious and he hated the helpless feeling that seemed to have taken up residence in the middle of his chest.

“I’m looking for my grandson,” came a firm voice down the corridor and he turned to see Suke-san walking towards them, nurse at his side, looking every inch the stern paternal figure he was pretending to be. “Sanjou Yukito. My daughter’s only child, you understand, and so far nobody’s been able to tell me anything.”

“He had a severe case of acute appendicitis,” the nurse was saying as they got closer. “He’s in surgery now so the doctor can fix it. He’s likely to remain in hospital for about a week as he recuperates.”

 _A week?_ Ryouga thought in dismay, exchanging worried looks with Ranru-chan and Asuka-san. Evorian could strike at any time and if Sanjou-san was going to be out of the question for a week at least they were going to be in trouble.

“Did he mention anything about being in any kind of pain over the past few days?” the nurse was continuing and Suke-san shook his head.

“No. Yukito-kun is very stubborn, he doesn’t like showing any kind of weakness, even to those closest to him.”

Except… Sanjou-san _had_ been a little… off lately, Ryouga thought, flashing back to a few days ago at the Dino House, Sanjou-san with a hand pressed tightly against his stomach, strained expression on his face. He’d passed it off as the Giganoid getting lucky and Ryouga hadn’t given it another thought because Sanjou-san had seemed fine after that. He mentally smacked himself around the head for letting it go, he should know better by now, he did know better, knew that Sanjou-san didn’t like drawing attention to himself or his problems.

“He would have been in a severe amount of pain,” the nurse said carefully. “Has he been taking any kind of medication, that you know of?”

Suke-san shook his head and again Ryouga mentally berated himself for not paying more attention: if Sanjou-san had been taking painkillers or anything like that, he should have _noticed_ , damn it. A severe amount of pain… no wonder he’d gone down so hard when Emi-pon bumped into him, it must have been the last straw.

“Well, surgery should be over soon, providing there are no complications. If you would like to sit down here, when your grandson comes out of surgery someone will come for you.”

Suke-san nodded and sank down into the nearest chair, next to Ranru-chan. “Thank you.” He looked tired, Ryouga thought. The worry was taking its toll on all of them and was simply more obvious on the old man. Suke-san was the closest thing Sanjou-san had to a father-figure, one that wouldn’t be pushed away in instinctive emotional self-defence.

The nurse nodded back and walked off down the corridor, opening a door to presumably another ward about halfway down.

“A week,” Ranru-chan said quietly. “I can’t believe he didn’t say anything. Idiot.”

“It won’t be a week,” Asuka replied, just as quietly as they automatically moved closer, congregating around the chairs. “I would say a couple of days and he’ll be out. His connection with Tricera will help him recuperate faster, drawing on the bakuryuu energy to heal.”

“They can do that?” Ryouga asked in surprise and Asuka nodded.

“Yes. And Tricera has already been blocking much of Yukito-san’s pain over the past few days. Haven’t you, Kera?” It was as close to an accusation as Asuka-san could manage.

A nervous laugh came out of Asuka’s Dino Brace and the Brachio plate was replaced with Kera’s.

“Kera-chan,” Ranru-chan said dangerously. “You knew about this? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Yukito-san thought it would go away,” Kera-chan said meekly. “He didn’t want to be a problem for everyone.”

“And now he’s in hospital having surgery,” she shot back. “Sometimes you just have to ignore what Yukito-san says, Kera-chan. Especially when it comes to himself.”

Ryouga nodded in agreement. Even now he would say that Sanjou-san didn’t value himself enough, in spite of all his outward arrogance. He knew that, damn it, he thought to himself in frustration. Why had he let it go? Why? Kera-chan wasn’t the only one to blame, here. “You can’t blame Kera-chan for this,” he said reluctantly. “I knew he was in pain a few days ago and I let it go when he blamed Evorian. I should have known better.”

Asuka-san shook his head. “This won’t get us anywhere,” he sighed, sitting down next to Suke-san, leaving Ryouga as the only one standing. “Yukito-san is our teammate and friend, yet we didn’t notice anything. I think the blame lies with all of us and we can’t change that now. We’ll just have to pay more attention in the future.”

***

When Yukito woke up it was to find himself in an unfamiliar room with an unfamiliar older woman fussing over him. He went to push her away and realised with dismay that he could barely move without his stomach screaming at him. “What’s going on?” he managed and the woman rearranged the bed sheets around him.

“You’ve not long had an emergency appendectomy,” she said. “You’re very lucky, young man. Especially considering you didn’t say anything about the pain you were in.”

Yukito bridled at that. It wasn’t as if he’d had much choice, he couldn’t afford to be ill while Evorian was trying to take over the world and turn into a desert.

“Still, you’re awake a lot sooner than the doctor thought you would be so I’ll have to go and let him know.” She paused, head tilted to the side thoughtfully. “Do you feel up to any visitors? Your grandfather is outside, as well your friends.”

“Grandfather?” he asked in confusion. His grandparents were either dead or as good as for all the contact he had with them. He couldn’t imagine any of his family even knowing he was in hospital, let alone caring enough to visit. The nurse, however, seemed to take that as his answer because she smiled and nodded.

“I’ll let him know he can come in. Your friends will have to wait, though.”

“Alright,” he replied slowly. Maybe he should have asked for the ‘friends’ instead, because that no doubt meant Ryouga and the others, not some nebulous ‘grandfather,’ he’d never heard of. He didn’t have long to wait before the door opened and Sugishita-san walked in, hat tucked under his arm, the nurse remaining in the doorway for a moment. “Grandfather,” he greeted dryly, the puzzle coming together now. It must have been lingering anaesthetic dulling his mind for him not to have considered Sugishita before this.

“Yukito-kun, how are you feeling?”

“Better, thank you.”

“You should take better care of yourself, Yukito-kun,” Sugishita said reproachfully as he sat down in the nearby chair and Yukito scowled.

“If I want a lecture on taking care of myself I’ll go to Ryouga,” he growled, not looking forward to the equally reproachful expression he knew he’d get from the other man; Ryouga had the irritating ability to guilt-trip him into practically anything and he knew he could look forward to a tongue-lashing from Ranru as well. Asuka would just look disappointed. Well, let them. He never asked them to care about what happened to him.

“The doctor says you’ll be here for a week at least,” Sugishita continued, unperturbed and Yukito went cold all over. He couldn’t stay here for a week! If Evorian attacked he would have to be there, Ryouga and Ranru couldn’t form Abaren-Oh without him, or the Dino Bomber come to that, and that was even before you included Abare Killer in the equation…

“Calm down, Yukito-kun,” Sugishita said soothingly, then stole a quick glance at the now empty doorway, standing uo to close it. “Asuka-kun thinks you’ll be out in a couple of days with Kera-chan helping you.” Sugishita frowned as he sat back down. “It wasn’t well done of you, Yukito-kun, forbidding Kera-chan to say anything to us. This could have been a lot worse.”

Yukito flushed, staring fixedly at the wall. “I thought it would go away,” he muttered. “It wasn’t worth making a fuss over.”

Sugishita snorted. “That’s what the others think, but they’re wrong, aren’t they.” It wasn’t a question. “Someone as trained in healing as you are, never mind the field, would know better than that.”

“I can’t afford to be sick, Sugishita, not with Evorian around. None of us can.” When had the old man got so perceptive? he thought in frustration. Until now only Ryouga had shown the ability to read him so easily.

“So instead you let it get to the point where you need to be hospitalised? You should know better.”

He did know better, Yukito thought guiltily. That was part of the problem. “Alright, it was stupid and I was wrong. Is that what you want to hear?” he demanded.

The old man sighed and closed his eyes, rubbing at the bridge of his nose tiredly. “I don’t want anything from you that you won’t give, Yukito-kun. None of us do. Just don’t do something like this again, that’s all. Don’t forget that we care about you.”

“I never asked you to,” Yukito muttered. “I was fine on my own, I never asked anyone to care.”

“You didn’t have to!” Sugishita almost - but not quite - shouted. “We care about you, whether you like it or not.”

Yukito squirmed in the bed, wincing a little as he pulled at the stitches. He wasn’t used to people caring about him anymore, not since Mika, and she’d left anyway, moved across the country because his father bought off her parents. Besides, people caring just complicated things, he was better off without all that mess. At least, that was what he’d thought until now, but maybe he’d been wrong; God knew Ryouga was doing a pretty good job of worming his way through previously firm defences as it was, maybe it was time he tried letting people in again.


End file.
